Church of England to concern AI steering as ‘robotic may give sermons’
Church of England chiefs will reportedly issue rules on how to deploy artificial intelligence after Pope calls for tech to be disarmed to safeguard the future of humanity
Pope Leo XIV with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally, during her four-day visit to Rome, Italy in April(Image: Vatican Media/PA Wire)
Bots could soon be writing sermons after church leaders announced vicars will be given guidance on how to use AI. Church of England chiefs are in the process of preparing new rules for the clergy on how to deploy artificial intelligence.
Some vicars want bots to have their own bishop. The CoE’s General Synod – the church’s law-maker – said it is preparing instructions for the nation’s 6,700 vicars on the tech.
It comes after Pope Leo XIV warned AI threatened human dignity by turning the ownership of folks’ data into a new form of “digital slavery”.
He said it was “not permissible” to entrust lethal and irreversible decisions to AI and demanded the technology be disarmed to safeguard humanity.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally last month told the House of Lords AI was degrading and violating humanity.
Though a “remarkable product of human creativity” she said it was finding “new ways of degrading and violating” humanity and warned AI regulation was “wholly inadequate” to prevent harm.
But the General Synod accepted its use was so widespread guidelines should be issued on how it can be adopted in churches.
In a written answer to clergy queries on the tech the Archbishop said the church needed to “examine its own conscience when it comes to questions of accountability, the exercise of power and shared responsibility within its own life”.
“That too is part of the context in which any Anglican response to AI must now be worked out,” she said.
“The suggestion of a specialist bishop is a creative one and reflects the significance of these questions for the Church’s life and mission.”
She further stated: “It also prompts the question of how this work is best held and carried forward across the Church as a community of witness.
“Given the scale and pace of these developments – including emerging questions around AI infrastructures in space – the need is likely to be not for a single focal appointment, but for a broader, long-term response, supported by theological, scientific and policy expertise, and shaped in ways that enable episcopal leadership to be exercised coherently and well.”
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